- Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake, (born January 31 1981), sometimes known as JT, is an American pop-R&B singer and actor. He came to fame as the frontman of pop boy band 'N Sync and has won four Grammy Awards. In 2002, he released his debut solo album, "Justified", which sold over seven million copies worldwide. Timberlake's second solo release, "FutureSex/LoveSounds", was released in 2006 with the #1 U.S. hit singles "SexyBack", "My Love", … - Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 - August 16, 1977), was an American singer, musician and actor. He is often known simply as Elvis; also "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King". Presley began his career as one of the first performers of rockabilly, an uptempo fusion of country and rhythm and blues with a strong back beat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing 'black' and 'white' sounds, … - Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American R&B, Pop and Gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has been called for many years "The Queen Of Soul", but many also call her "Lady Soul," as well as the more affectionate "Sister Ree." She is renowned for her soul recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, gospel, and even opera. She is generally regarded as one of the greatest vocalists ever, … - B. B. King
Riley B. King, better known as B. B. King or "The King of Blues" (born September 16 1925 in Itta Bena, Mississippi), is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, widely considered one of the best and most respected blues musicians of all time. He was also ranked 3<sup>rd</sup> on the Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. - Pinetop Perkins
Pinetop Perkins (born Joe Willie Perkins on July 7, 1913) is an American blues musician. Perkins was born in Belzoni, Mississippi. He began his career as a guitarist, but then injured the tendons in his left arm in a fight with a choirgirl in Helena, Arkansas. Unable to play guitar, Perkins switched to the piano, and also switched from Robert Nighthawk's KFFA radio program to Sonny Boy Williamson's "King Biscuit Time". - Mississippi John Hurt
"Mississippi" John Smith Hurt (July 2, 1892, Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi - November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) was an influential blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learned to play guitar at age 9. He spent much of his youth playing old time music for friends and dances, earning a living as a farm hand into the 1920s. - Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 - January 19, 1998) was an American pioneer of rockabilly music, a mix of rhythm and blues and country music that was recorded most notably at Sun Records in Memphis beginning in 1954. - R. L. Burnside
R. L. Burnside (born Robert Lee Burnside, Harmontown, Lafayette County, Mississippi, November 21 or November 23, 1926; d. Memphis, Tennessee, September 1, 2005) was a blues singer, songwriter and guitarist who lived much of his life in and around Holly Springs, Mississippi. He played music for much of his life, but did not receive much attention until the early 1990s. - Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty (September 1 1933 - June 5 1993), born Harold Lloyd Jenkins) was one of the United States' most successful country music artists of the 20th century. He had the most singles (55) reach Number 1 on various national music charts. Most commonly thought of as a country music singer, he also enjoyed success in early Rock and Roll, R&B, and Pop music (among others). - Chips Moman
Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman (born 1936 in La Grange, Georgia) is an American record producer, guitarist and songwriter. The nickname "Chips" apparently derives from his love of gambling. As a producer, Moman is known for recording Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Carla Thomas, Merrilee Rush and Box Tops in Memphis during the 1960s. As a songwriter, he is responsible for standards associated with Aretha Franklin, James Carr, Waylon Jennings and B. J. Thomas. - Al Green
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer who enjoyed great popularity in the early and mid 1970s. - William Bell
William Bell (born William Yarborough, 16 July 1939, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American soul singer and songwriter. He was one of the architects of the Stax-Volt sound, and is probably best known for his 1961 debut single, "You Don't Miss Your Water". With Booker T. Jones, Bell wrote the song, "Born Under a Bad Sign", which became a signature song for blues musician, Albert King. It was later popularized by the power trio, Cream. - Chris Bell
Chris Bell (January 12, 1951 - December 27, 1978) was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star, which recorded albums during the early 1970s. Chris Bell left the group after their first album, "#1 Record", but contributed some music and lyrics to their second LP, 1974's "Radio City". - Howlin' Wolf
Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 - January 10, 1976), better known as Howlin' Wolf or sometimes, The Howlin' Wolf, was an influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. - Jay Reatard
Jay Reatard (born Jay Lindsey) is a prolific garage punk musician from Memphis, Tennessee. He is best known for his work in The Reatards, Lost Sounds, and his current solo career. - Johnny Shines
Johnny Shines was an American blues singer and guitarist. He was born John Ned Shines in Frayser, Tennessee. He spent most of his childhood in Memphis playing slide guitar at an early age in local “jukes” and for tips on the streets. His first musical influences were Blind Lemon Jefferson and Howlin’ Wolf, but he was taught to play the guitar by his mother. - James Carr
James Carr (June 13, 1942 - January 7th, 2001) Born to a Baptist preacher's family in Coahoma, Mississippi, Carr began singing in church and was performing in gospel groups and making tables on an assembly line in Memphis, Tennessee when he began recording in the mid-'60s for Goldwax Records, a small Memphis based label. Carr first made the R&B charts in 1966 with "You've Got My Mind Messed Up", followed by his most famous song "The Dark End of the Street", … - Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes (born August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee) is an American soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, and actor. Hayes is best known as one of the creative forces behind Stax Records, for which he served as both an in-house songwriter/producer and a recording artist. In addition to his work in popular music, Hayes has also written scores for several motion pictures as well. - Jazze Pha
Jazze Pha (pronounced "Jazzie Fay") is the stage name of Phalon Anton Alexander (born 1975 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA). He is an American record producer, songwriter, singer and rapper. His father is Bar-Kays bassist, James Alexander. He is named after the late Phalon Jones, a member of his father's group. His mother is an experienced singer named Denise Williams, but contrary to widespread belief, … - Syl Johnson
Syl Johnson (b. July 1 1936) is an American blues and soul singer and music producer. Born Sylvester Thompson in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Johnson sang and played with blues artists Magic Sam, Billy Boy Arnold, Junior Wells and Howlin' Wolf in the 1950s, before recording with Jimmy Reed for Vee-Jay in 1959. He made his solo debut that same year with Federal, a subsidiary of King Records of Cincinnati, backed by Freddie King on guitar. - Jimmy Rogers
Jimmy Rogers (June 3, 1924-December 19, 1997) was a blues guitarist best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s. Jimmy Rogers was born James A. Lane in Ruleville, Mississippi, and was raised in Memphis. Rogers learned the harmonica alongside his childhood friend Snooky Pryor, and as a teenager took up the guitar and played professionally in East St. Louis, Illinois (where he played with Junior Lockwood), … - Gus Cannon
Gus Cannon (b. Red Banks, Mississippi, September 12, 1883 - d. Memphis, October 15, 1979) was an African American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands (such as his own Cannon's Jug Stompers) in the 1920s and 1930s. Born on a plantation, Cannon moved to Clarksdale, then the home of W.C. Handy, at the age of 12. - Marc Cohn
Marc Cohn (born July 5, 1959 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his song "Walking in Memphis" from his eponymous 1991 album "Marc Cohn". He has issued two other studio albums to date, "The Rainy Season" (1993) and "Burning the Daze" (1998), both on Atlantic Records. A self-released live compilation, "Live 04-05" (2005), is being sold at concerts on his current tour. - Peter Green
Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum, October 29 1946, in Bethnal Green, London) is a British blues-rock guitarist and founding member of the band Fleetwood Mac. A highly regarded figure in the British blues movement, Green inspired B. B. King to say, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Green's playing was marked with a distinctive keen vibrato and economy of style, … - Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash (born May 24, 1955) is an American singer and songwriter. Although she is most often classified as a country artist, her music also draws on other genres including folk, pop, rock and roll and blues. She is one of the daughters of Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto Cash Distin, born shortly before the release of her father's first single. She is also the stepdaughter of June Carter and the stepsister of country singer Carlene Carter . - Willie Clayton
Willie Clayton (b. March 29, 1956 in Indianola, Mississippi) is an American blues singer. - Frank Stokes
Frank Stokes (December 1887 or January 1888 - September 12, 1955) was a blues musician, songster, and blackface minstrel who is considered by many musicologists to be the father of the Memphis blues guitar style. Born in White Haven, Tennessee, two miles north of the Mississippi state line, Frank Stokes was raised in Tutwiler, Mississippi, after the death of his parents. Stokes learned to play guitar as a youth in Tutwiler, and, after 1895, in Hernando, Mississippi, … - Dan Penn
Wallace Daniel Pennington (16 November 1941 -) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" & "Do Right Woman" (with Chips Moman) and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby" (with Spooner Oldham). Penn has also produced hits such as "The Letter" by The Box Tops, amongst others. Though he is considered to be one of the great white soul singers, … - Washboard Sam
Robert Brown, known professionally as Washboard Sam, was an American blues singer and musician. Reputedly the half-brother of Big Bill Broonzy, Brown moved to Memphis in the 1920s, performing as a street musician with Sleepy John Estes and Hammie Nixon. He then moved to Chicago in 1932, performing regularly with Broonzy, … - Sonny Burgess
Albert "Sonny" Burgess is a guitarist and singer of rockabilly, present at its inception and still performing today. He was born May 28, 1931 on a farm near Newport, Arkansas about 60 miles west of Memphis. Burgess played honky-tonk music in dance halls and bars around Newport in the early-1950s. He helped form a semiprofessional trio in the early 1950s, which became the "Moonlighters." After advice from record producer Sam Phillips, … - Teenie Hodges
Mabon "Teenie" Hodges is a Memphis musician best known for his work as lead guitarist and songwriter on many of Al Green's popular soul hits of the 1970s. His compositions "Take Me to the River" and "Love and Happiness," both cowritten with Green, have been covered by numerous other international artists, including Al Jarreau, Amazing Rhythm Aces, Talking Heads, O.V. Wright, David Sanborn, Toots & the Maytals, Canned Heat, Foghat, Levon Helm, Syl Johnson, Annie Lennox, … - Willie Mabon
Willie Mabon was an American R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. Brought up in Memphis, he had become known as a singer and pianist by the time he moved to Chicago in 1942. He formed a group, the Blues Rockers, and in 1949 began recording for the Aristocrat label, and then Chess. His style contrasted with many Chess artistes – it was cool and jazzy, emphasising piano and saxophone rather than guitar and harmonica. - Todd Snider
Todd Daniel Snider is a singer-songwriter born October 11, 1966 in Portland, Oregon. Best known for his wry humor, Snider has been a fixture on the Americana, alt-country, and folk scene since his debut on MCA, entitled "Songs for the Daily Planet", named after The Daily Planet bar where Snider used to play regularly in Memphis. On that album were the minor hits "Talkin' Seattle Grunge Rock Blues", … - Othar Turner
Othar Turner (a.k.a. Otha Turner) (b. east of Canton, Mississippi, June 2, 1907; d. February 26, 2003), was one of the last well-known fife players in the vanishing American fife and drum musical tradition. He lived his entire life in northern Mississippi as a farmer, where in 1923 at the age of 16 he first learned to play the fife and make them from sugarcane. - Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes called 'KoKo Taylor' (born Cora Walton, 28 September 1935, in Shelby County, Tennessee) is an American blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She is known primarily for her rough and powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings. Taylor left Memphis for Chicago, Illinois in 1954 with her husband, truck driver Robert "Pops" Taylor and in the late 1950s began singing in Chicago blues clubs. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, … - Bobby Rush
Bobby Rush (born November 10, 1940) is an American blues and R&B musician, composer and singer. He was born Emmit Ellis Jr. in Homer, Louisiana. His family relocated to Chicago in 1953, where he became part of the local blues scene. In the early 1980s he moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he recorded a series of records for the LaJam label, Malaco's Waldoxy imprint, and more recently his own Deep Rush label. He is a purveyer of the soul blues sound. - Memphis Slim
Memphis Slim (3 September 1915 in Memphis, Tennessee - 24 February 1988 in Paris, France) was a blues pianist and singer. - Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater (b. May 27, 1950) is an American Jazz singer. She is a two-time Grammy Award Winner, Tony Award Winner and Host of NPR's Syndicated Radio show "JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater". She is a United Nations Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). - Alex Chilton
Alex Chilton (born named William Alexander Chilton, on December 28, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American songwriter, guitarist, singer and producer best known for his work with the pop-music bands the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial sales success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was not repeated in later years with Big Star and in his indie music solo career on small labels like Last Call Records, New Rose, Razor and Tie, Bar/None, … - David Ruffin
David Ruffin (Davis Eli Ruffin) (January 18, 1941 - June 1, 1991) was an American soul singer most famous for his work as lead singer of The Temptations from 1964 to 1968
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